TRON: INFECTION
by Grumps Ba Donkey
Summary: Set two decades after the events of the original TRON, a young programmer finds himself placed on The GRID. With no way home he must fight off a Virus that has Plagued the Grid and stop a corrupt program from attaining complete control of the system.
1. Digitization

1

Eric Thomas felt a tingling sensation that paralyzed his body and slowed his thoughts to Crawl. He managed to catch a glimpse of the bright blue laser that shot out at him just before it went dark.

He hardly ever dreamt anymore; When he did it was usually the same dream, every time.

He felt dazed, like walking in total darkness with a beam of light visible only when a vehicle haphazardly sped by. Eric assumed he was on a highway that stretched straight across an open field. Walking for what seemed like hours, a light, shooting straight up could eventually be seen in the distance. Heading for the light meant leaving the highway behind and plunging deeper into the unknown abyss. Following the light, like a moth to a candle, Eric walked across the open fields. The light grew brighter until the source was finally visible. It lied in a crater the size of a small city, nestled beneath the horizon. It shot straight up from the ground. As Eric moved closer his outstretched arms began emitting a pale blue glow. His vision was blurred and the light seemed to make its way into his mind leaving him staggered, almost blind. Suddenly a figure emerges in the distance.  
The white glowing silhouette could be seen sitting in the light, Eric cautiously approached. He got so close he could almost touch the figure, but something held him back. The figure steeped in the aura of the powerful light radiating from behind noticed his presence and slowly rose. As it stood, its long hair lent itself to the breeze as golden tresses were ravaged by the soft wind. Fully erect the shape revealed the slender frame of a young woman. She stood silently and motioned for Eric to come closer.

He didn't, couldn't.

All his body would allow him to do was slowly move away from her. He could feel himself apologizing but heard nothing. The light began to fade and the woman with it.

It was gone. Nothing to be seen. Nothing to be heard. Only a crater remained in the middle of that open field.

2

The sensation of falling woke Eric up. He quickly braced himself for a hard landing and instinctively put his arms out in front of himself. It startled him when his hands slammed on the table. His heart pumped loudly in his throat and his head was off pounding and felt as though it were about to rip itself apart. Still, Eric was relived to discover that he still in one piece and safe. Yet something was wrong. His surroundings had changed. The chair he was sitting in felt different. The desk had changed as well. Everything was coated in a transparent dark shade of blue. He was still dreaming, he had to be and he knew it. He headed out of the room and ran into the bigger space he had just on the other side. The larger room seemed to be an exact replica of the arcade he was in before he'd fallen asleep.  
This arcade however was pulsing with light blue squares that dotted all the walls. Eric walked out the door and into a city, bustling with movement and rife with sound. Nobody seemed to notice Eric as he walked through the crowd examining their [strange cyber punk] like style. The sky roared with a dark storm, illuminated by the pale blue light of the skyscrapers. The streets were made of a polished glass that reflected the monolithic structures making it all seem like it was all sitting on a very still lake.

His dreams were never this detailed, never this real. It was easy for him to get lost in the strange splendor of this neon-blue city. He had never seen anything like it. He had also never felt this kind of pain before. It shot into his back and sent a shock wave of acute pain from his temples to his feet. He tumbled to his knees gritting his teeth, unable to open his mouth and scream. Whatever hit him was closer now and buzzing loudly in his ear.

A deep synthesized voice bark out to him from behind. "Stay on your knees program. Strays are not permitted in the city without Minders."

Eric was cuffed and dragged off the streets and put in a futuristic egg-like car. Like most of the architecture of this city, the car was laced with neon strips of light. The car's lights were green contrasting the blue that was prevalent everywhere else. Shoved into the back, Eric glanced at his captor and saw that he was fit in a black leather suit that had similar neon green strips that moved up and down his arms and chest as if they were tracing the path of his blood. He tried to catch a glimpse of his captors visage but could only see his own reflection in a black mask resembling a motorcycle helmet.  
The car door was slammed shut before Eric could make out anymore details. He lay there in pain, in what seemed to be the trunk. The car hummed loudly and began to move. It was a smooth ride heading down the glass road.

Eric closed his eyes and felt himself falling asleep. He hoped it meant he was waking up, He knew he wasnt. The belief that he was still in a dream had left. Listening to the hum of the car relaxed him and the pain subsided.

"Where am I?" he whispered to himself "How did I get here?" It was hard to remember what he had done before he woke up. "Where am I going?" He looked up to check if the trunk had any windows. It didn't.

The car came to a stop and the door opened. The man in the helmet grabbed Eric by the arm and brought him outside. They stood on a platform that overlooked a large canyon. The Canyon walls seemed unnatural and sharp as if they were sculpted. There was a strong breeze that stung his eyes forcing him to squint. Eric made out other men on the far end of the platform dressed in the same neon green suit of his captor. They held in hand grand maces that shone green at the top and made a threatening humming noise. He recognized the humming to be what had hit him in the back earlier.  
Through the howls of the wind, he heard the men speak.

"A stray?", one of them said. The helmets they wore seemed to synthesize their voice, which made them all sound like each other.

"Yes, he was wandering the streets over by the Arcadia Zone"

"Has he lost his data yet?"

Eric couldn't see their eyes but felt their gaze fall on him.

"Stray! Identify!"

He thought about responding but didn't. Instead he listened to the wind and tried to drown out the terrible hum of the \bsetters.

"We will assume that he has wiped"

"Then he goes to the games?" Eric couldn't hear the wind anymore. Only the humming.

"Yes, he goes to the games".


	2. Alan's Girl

**Three Months Earlier**

With a flip of a switch on the wall, the arcade machines lit up and in unison sung their opening bits. The ceiling lights flickered on and a bass heavy tape of Billy Joel's "we didn't start the fire" began pumping out of the speakers on the wall. Eric considered turning it off and motioned for the switch.

"don't do it. I like this song". Mae came in with her long blonde hair tied up in a bun and began exploring the arcade.

Eric followed closely behind her. "I haven't heard this song since I was a kid". Eric wasn't particularly fond of his time in the 80's.

"did you forget how much you loved it?"

"Not really"

Mae turned around to face Eric and playfully gasped "how dare you not like Billy Joel!"

He shrugged "Let's just hurry up and find Flynn's office. The noise is killing me".

"Fine" Mae sighed.

They continued to search the arcade until they found a hallway that led to the upstairs office that overlooked the main floor. Mae and Eric's presence disturbed the dust that had collected in the room for some time. An L shaped couch covered in papers and folders sat up against the windows in the back of the room.

"There might be something in those papers" Mae pointed toward the couch. "I'm going to start there"

"Ok, I'm going to go try the desk". Eric walked over to a glass desk and turned on the lamp that sat next to several large computer screens. "Shit he had quite a set up over here". Mae looked at the five screens that sat on top of the desk and saw that it was all connected to a rather large tower and guessed that it was probably hooked up to at least 17 hard drives.

"that's nothing" she said as she continued to rummage through the papers.

"What?!" Eric protested "I bet this things got data out the ass!"

"Sure, but nothing that's gonna help us. He had the same set up back at the lab. All it had on it was programs for his 'grid', programs aren't going to help us find him".

Eric ignored her and booted up the computer and began searching through its many files.

Most of the papers on the couch were crumpled up or ripped in pieces. Some of them had been shredded and a quick look at the metal trash bin by the couch uncovered residues of a small fire and burnt pages. "he was trying to get rid of a lot of papers in a hurry" Mae thought to herself. She salvaged as many of the papers as she could but it wasn't much.

"Useless. All of it" She threw the papers aside and looked out the window.

She sat motionless on the couch listening to the beeping and the pulsing of the arcade. She Remembered how Flynn would walk her past here when she was just a kid. Back then the arcade was packed and full of excitement. It wasn't just an arcade, it was a club. All of the best and brightest programmers in the city would gather at the arcade and exchange their wisdom and knowledge.

With her father gone Flynn was all she had. Flynn did his best to be a loving and supportive godfather and taught her everything he knew about programing.

"You have potential, I can tell. Your going to take my place. You'll be better than I or your father ever were." He would always tell her. She believed it.

It had been a year since Flynn disappeared. It was all over the news. Headlines roared with outcries over the loss "Hot shot programmer Kevin Flynn disappears". It was a heavy blow to the tech industry and Flynn's company Encom. His disappearance was at the heels for the launch of what Encom called their "Masterpiece". Flynn described it as his gift to the world. It would bring about world Peace, technological advancement, perpetual dominance over the industry, perfection.

Mae believed every word of it. Flynn had created a miracle. But he disappeared before any of it could come to fruition. Now she spent her days with her best friend searching for any sign of what happened to him and she was getting nowhere.

"Mae get over here!"

Mae hopped over the mess he made and took a look at the screen Eric was pointing at.

"I think I found something"

He scrolled down to a list of key commands

"There!" Eric put his finger on the screen and touched the phrase "Open Arc Backroom".

"What does it do?" Mae asked.

"Lets find out." Eric typed in the command, hit enter, and waited for something to happen. It didn't take long. The office made a low grumble that traveled across the room and stopped behind the blank wall next to them. With a loud clack the wall slid aside revealing a large hidden orange metallic door.

Eric got up from behind the desk and put a hand on the door. "How do you propose we open this thing?"

"Im guessing that keypad there" Mae pointed at the panel on the door directly positioned below Eric's hand.

"Right then! Whats the code?"

"No need" Mae took out a small black box from her coat and attached it onto the panel.

"little something I picked up from the lab". She turned on the black box and it lit up projecting a screen that began cycling numbers in sequence. Before Eric could ask what it was doing, the black box began flashing wild green streaks of light.

From behind the door Eric and Mae could hear several loud clanks that sent vibrations throughout the room and down their spines. The orange door hissed as it awoke and unlatched itself from its bindings and slowly swung open. Out from the darkness behind the door, a cool air shot out.

Eric moved around the door and began to venture in. He called back to Mae

"It leads down Mae. I can see light at the bottom"

The two headed down a flight of stairs into a large basement lit under pale yellow lights that were strung along the back wall. Eric and Mae could only make out the silhouettes of the furniture and objects that were scattered across the room. One empty desk set up against the back wall caught Mae's eye. Eric unable to decipher anything in the room kept his eyes on Mae and followed her movements as she approached the desk. Sitting alone on top was a memory stick with something scratched on the side. Mae picked it up and held it up to the light to read it.

"What is it Mae"

"I don't get it" Her voice was shaking

"Mae?"

She clutched the stick in her hands and collapsed on the ground, fighting back tears. Eric tried to approach her but she shrugged him off.

"I was sure this was it" She had been searching for what seemed like a lifetime. Mae was tired. She fell to her knees and let her body relax. The memory stick slid from her open palms.

Eric bent down to wipe the tears from her face.

"I was sure he would leave behind something for me. Something that could lead me to him."

Eric was tired too. He sat next to her and gently laid his arm on her back. He noticed the stick on the ground and picked it up.

"Instead he tells me to move on". Mae let out a sigh of pain and rested her head on her friend's shoulder. For the first time in months, Mae let herself rest and closed her eyes.

Eric brought the stick closer to his face so that he could make out what was written on it.

"TRON"


End file.
